Wescosville Woman Slain

Police Search For Husband

October 29, 1993|by KRISTIN CASLER, The Morning Call

A woman was killed yesterday after she returned for her belongings to the Wescosville mobile home she had shared with her husband until she moved in with her parents in Salisbury Township after a summer of physical abuse and threats, officials said.

State police at Fogelsville were searching for Diane Fehnel's husband, William, in the killing.

William Fehnel, who police warned was dangerous, was seen leaving the High Point Trailer Court, 5816 S. Krocks Road, Lower Macungie Township, yesterday morning. Police did not name him as the suspect.

Lehigh County Coroner Wayne Snyder ruled Diane Fehnel's death a homicide, but an autopsy will be done today.

Diane Fehnel was at Lot 9, which she and her husband own, to remove her belongings and clean up, neighbor Gloria Seibert said. She asked Seibert about 9 a.m. if she could borrow hot water for cleaning. She never came back for it, Seibert said.

Fehnel's mother, Kathleen Caton, arrived about an hour later and frantically tried to get into the home, said Seibert, who accompanied her. When she found the door locked and no response to pounding on the windows, Caton climbed through a window onto a sofa. There, she found her 33-year-old daughter on the living room floor.

"He got to her, he got to her," Seibert said Caton shouted.

Seibert said the side of Diane Fehnel's face was black and blue, but she could not tell how she died.

William Fehnel, 59, a maintenance supervisor at the Phillipsburg Mall, filed for divorce three days ago, according to Lehigh County court records. His wife filed several protection-from-abuse orders against him since July, including one that was in effect at the time of her death, court records show. She said in court documents that he had been stalking her non-stop since she moved out.

William Fehnel, in turn, filed protection orders against his wife for threatening to kill him. The latest was dismissed for lack of evidence, records show.

The couple, who had two children, Andrew, 5, and Kathleen, 9, were married in 1982. According to the divorce papers, Diane Fehnel moved to 3121 Catherine Ave., Salisbury Township, in July.

Shortly after moving out, Diane Fehnel filed for a protection order, claiming her husband went to Q-mart where she worked in Quakertown, called her names and told everyone she had AIDS, court records show. That night "he said he would blow my head off and watch the blood turn the dough red."

She also worked for Auntie Anne's Homemade Pretzels.

On the phone the following day, William Fehnel read her a death poem that he had written, according to court records. On July 26, she said he pushed her across the kitchen floor.

Diane Fehnel withdrew the protection order Aug. 5.

William Fehnel filed a protection order about the same time against his father-in-law, Howard Caton. Caton, he said, threatened to knock his head off. William Fehnel said Caton had a bad temper and had guns.

He also filed one against his wife because he said she threatened to kill him July 24 and 25 if he didn't drop the case against her father, court records show.

Both of those cases were dropped Aug. 4.

William Fehnel again filed for a protection order against his wife four days later because she threatened to kill him after he refused to sign some kind of papers.

"We had PFAs against each other before, and we dropped them because she said if we drop them, we'll get back together and work things out," he wrote in the order application.

Two days later, he dropped the case.

A similar order he requested Oct. 8 was dismissed last week for lack of evidence.

In an application for a protection order earlier this month, Diane Fehnel said her husband choked and slapped her in the face and banged her head against the bread box.

On Oct. 5, Diane Fehnel said, her husband went to her parents' home to visit their children. He started a fight about money.

"He threatened to have me thrown in jail, and he scared the kids," according to court records. Seibert said each of the Fehnels moved in and out of the trailer park several times since the summer. She said she never heard them argue in the four years they lived across the street.

"When we would sit outside, he was always a happy-go-lucky guy," said Allen Seibert.

"It was a real shock that they were separating," his wife added. "But this is devastating, I'll tell you."

According to police radio reports, William Fehnel was driving a 1981 silver or gray Toyota Tercel with two possible registration plates -- UZN-294 or ADL-0015.

He is white, 6-foot-1, 170 pounds and wears glasses. He has a receding gray hairline and usually wears a baseball cap, police said.

The trailer park is across Krocks Road from the scene of a fatal trailer fire set three weeks ago by someone police described as a jealous lover. Lisa Farkas and her 1-year-old son Tobias died in the fire.